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Mendy Kaminker

Do it for the love

As soon as I entered the building, I knew something was wrong.

It was the end of the year celebration at my daughter’s preschool. Everyone around her sang and moved as she stood there, tears running down her cheeks.

I felt horrible because I knew it was my fault. I came a few minutes late.

“It’s all because of the school! How should I know that it will take me 10 minutes to find parking?” I told myself, trying not to feel too guilty.

And then:

Why does she have to make such a big deal of it? Just a few minutes! I am here now and can watch most of the show! Why can’t she calm down? It doesn’t even make sense!”

But deep inside, I knew that none of this matters.

Because I love her and care about her. It doesn’t matter whether it makes sense or not; if it’s important to her, it’s important to me.

I assume (or should I say, hope?) that she had forgotten everything by now. But hopefully I will never forget this lesson.

Especially around this time of year.

You see, in this week’s Parsha we will learn the Mitzvah of Para Aduma, the Red Heifer. This Mitzvah belongs to a category of Mitzvot called “Chukim,” laws that we do not understand the logic behind them.

Which raises the question: why didn’t G-d reveal the reason beyond all Mitzvot? As rational people, we love to understand and do what makes sense. If G-d would tell us the reason, we would appreciate the Mitzvot so much more.

But this was indeed G-d’s message to us. A relationship based solely on logic is a shallow relationship. So G-d said: Do it even if it makes no sense to you. Do it because you’re in a relationship. Do it for your love.

May we all enjoy a deep and fulfilling relationship with G-d, and may we fulfill all Mitzvot with excitement and enthusiasm!

About the Author
Rabbi Mendy Kaminker is the Chabad Rabbi of Hackensack, and an editorial member of Chabad.org.
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